Not already a member?
Join our community and
- Rate & review pubs
- Upload pictures
- Add events
JOIN for free NOW
Chat about:
Beer of the Week (w/e 28th April 2024) with Mobyduck
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
The Holcombe Inn, Radstock
Holcombe
Postal town: Radstock
BA3 5EB
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
E TA left this review about The Holcombe Inn
A very pleasant country pub and restaurant, well described by Blackthorne, below, originally The Ring o' Roses. The building has 17th Century origins and was substantially developed in Victorian times. It is currently a free house. There is a small car park at the back and limited outside seating in a very peasant garden. The bars are open plan, most the the floor area is given over to dining tables. This makes the drinking area a bit cramped, and the overall gastro feel detracts from the pub experience. The staff were welcoming, but service is quite slow, partly because of the large geriatric clientele. Three ales on, Bath Gem, Butcombe bitter and Otter, all in excellent condition. There is also an average wine list and an excellent selection of whiskies. Food was good, maybe a little pretentious,though, and the prices weren't justified. I would however be very happy to come back for a meal or a few drinks when in the area, and I might be tempted to use the B&B facilities.
On 14th November 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3286 recommendations about 3251 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blackthorn _ left this review about The Holcombe Inn
A traditional looking country pub somewhat off the beaten track, it has clearly had a makeover at some point, and was in fact called The Ring of Roses if I recall on my last visit some years ago. It has now gone firmly down the gastro route, although there is nonetheless some areas that are not quite so geared up for dining and I’d be more than happy to pop in again for a pint if I were passing.
As you enter the pub, there is a small snug immediately in front of you. With it’s floor to ceiling wood panelling, this was somewhat reminiscent of a hotel drawing room and looked as though it would be a pleasant spot to while away an hour or two. The main bar area is to the left and other than the slate tiled floor this was a little more contemporary in appearance. Being relatively long and narrow, seating options were fairly limited with just a few tables along the front wall. A stone fire-place with a wood burning stove was at one end, and a small shelf next to it housed a stuffed pheasant among other things. A bookcase hosed a good selection of books and DVD’s, presumably for residents to borrow. By far the largest area of the pub was the restaurant area off to the left, and although it had a low beamed ceiling, this was otherwise similarly contemporary in appearance with khaki green wood panelling on the lower part of the walls and cream plasterwork elsewhere, along with a few watercolours on the walls. Being an upmarket gastro-pub, there were inevitable plenty of cushions scattered around and individual towels in the loos for drying your hands.
As previously mentioned, the food offering is quite upmarket, and although there were a few pub classics such as ham egg & chips, fish & chips or pie of the day, even the cheapest of these came in at £12.95. A few more adventurous dishes were more expensive again, with the venison coming in at over £20 and a fillet steak only a few pence short of £30. That said, my fillet of smoked haddock with a prawn risotto and poached egg was very good indeed, and a generous portion, whilst meatballs in a tomato sauce with linguine was also very well received.
Beers on tap were Otter Ale, Gem and Butcombe whilst the ciders were Copse House, Orchard Pig Reveller and Thatcher’s Gold. Overall, despite it’s gastro pretensions, I thought this was a decent pub and would be quite happy to return.
On 19th January 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1949 recommendations about 1862 pubs]